Passwords, our digital keys, wield a quiet power today. They protect your personal and business information, making them prime targets for hackers. With this power comes responsibility and the ongoing struggle to keep our virtual lives secure.
AI has also made accessing passwords easier for cyber criminals. Modern cyber criminals use AI solutions like PassGAN to easily crack the most common passwords. A study found that an AI password cracker can crack 51% of the most commonly used passwords in less than a minute.
Password hacking is becoming common, which is not something to take lightly. In March of 2023, password manager LastPass suffered a breach that gave attackers unencrypted access to customers’ vault data, effectively revealing crucial user information like usernames and passwords.
Cracking any type of account can be quite lucrative, so hackers won’t stop until they get it right. The name of the game is to have the best password hygiene possible to reduce the odds of a cyber criminal attempting to break past those defenses.
This article will walk you through 5 examples of strong passwords that get progressively stronger while being easy to remember.
Disclaimer: Since this blog post is available to anyone, you shouldn’t use any of the passwords mentioned below; they are purely meant as examples of good techniques.
Why having a strong password is important
Passwords are the first lines of defense of any account—whether social media, a business email, banking apps, healthcare accounts, etc. Having a strong password will help protect your accounts and devices from unauthorized access, thereby protecting your personal information.
What are examples of strong passwords?
LauraLikesBurgers
Phrases like this are infinitely stronger than more generic passwords containing various words because they’re more challenging for the artificial intelligence used by hackers to crack.
These programs usually run through every word in the dictionary, and adding grammar and syntax to the mix acts as a buffer to this tactic.
Passphrases also tend to have more characters, which makes them more robust by default. Mnemonic tricks and word associations make a passphrase like this easy to remember, even if you’re mixing upper and lowercase letters.
LauraLikesYuckyBurgers
Passphrases of 4 to 5 words are the most optimal for securing accounts. It’s even better if the phrase doesn’t make sense. That way, if hackers use more sophisticated software capable of common word associations, the misdirection can help your password withstand that increased scrutiny.
Everyone likes a burger, which means the previous password would’ve been cracked eventually, but who likes yucky burgers? Plus, “yucky” is more uncommon than “bad,” for example.
L4ur4L1k3sYuckyBurger5
Let’s take the previous password example to the next level by replacing letters with numbers they visually resemble. For example, an I or L becomes a 1; an E becomes a 3; an A becomes a 4; an S becomes a 5; and so on.
While this type of substitution is an easy way to remember your password, the technique, called leetspeak, also originates in the hacking world.
In other words, a criminal trying to obtain your password will know and use this technique during the account break-in process. A simple alternative is to switch the letter for the number right after the one it resembles. That way, it’s still fairly easy to remember, and a hacker may not be inclined to waste additional time going through a bunch of other numbers as alternatives.
!L4ura)L1kes)Yucky)Burgers
Special characters are another great way to lengthen your password and to make it more challenging for attackers who use dictionaries as their reference point to guess. In fact, most websites today require you to use them when you create or change a password.
However, it’s still possible to use special characters in an obvious way. You can put punctuation in the beginning or middle of a passphrase and never at the end to make it stronger.
The same goes for brackets. Invert them and sprinkle them in your passphrase in a random way that couldn’t be guessed by software using human examples.
!L4ura)L1kes)YuckyBwurgwurs
Adding a nonsensical word like “Bwurgwur” is another method to confuse typical brute force attacks. The only way to crack it is by going through every letter combination, which can take years.
A good trick to make the word easier to remember is to make it phonetically similar to the word you’re trying to replace in the phrase. In this case, “bwurgwur” sounds similar to “burger,” but it would be impossible to guess outright.
How to remember strong passwords
The most common reason users are hesitant about creating strong passwords is that they’re complicated and, therefore, more difficult to remember—add to the fact that you’re recommended to have different passwords for every single account you own.
But there are ways to make it easy to remember strong passwords. Here are some.
1. Use phrases instead of words. Stringing together multiple words that relate to each other can make them easier to remember. For example, instead of “food,” think of a way to strengthen the phrase “I’m hungry for food.”
2. Take inspiration from poetry. Phrases or quotes that made an impact on you will have their special place in your head. Think of your favorite song, book, or poem, for example. Take your favorite line and customize it to come up with your password. Don’t forget to add symbols and numbers here to make it harder to guess.
Strong Passwords Are Crucial for Online Hygiene
Part of your role in keeping your personal and business data safe is creating a strong password that’s susceptible to guessing and cracking—even with AI.
A strong password is your first line of defense against cyber attacks. When your password While the strong password examples showcased here are great starting points to strengthen any account’s data protection, there’s more to a safe password than those techniques alone.
One of them is having adequate phishing knowledge. The latest Gone Phishing Tournament tested over 1.3 million end-users against a tricky phishing simulation. The results showed that over 60% of those who clicked on the link took it further and submitted their business account password.
Another factor is knowing best practices. The most common problem is reused passwords. One breach becomes a complete meltdown across your entire online ecosystem.
A unique, strong password for every account you own is the best practice. To help you remember them all, using a password manager is the simplest way to leverage and store the best possible passwords.
Any password manager will also come with a built-in, fully randomized password generator. This feature ensures a different, difficult-to-guess protection layer for every account.
Because of the way password managers work, they don’t have to be easy to remember, and all the tricks mentioned in this article will be integrated by default.
Need more help crafting your very own strong password? Download our Strong Password Kit.
Protecting your data with a Strong Password Kit
Download this Strong Password Kit for more password resources to share with your users.
